The Hindu : IPR Board in Chennai becomes functional

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Dec 28, 2003

National

National

IPR Board in Chennai becomes functional

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI Dec. 27. The Intellectual Property Rights Appellate Board with headquarters at Chennai to adjudicate all disputes under the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) has become functional from last week.

The board which has a retired judge of the Madras High Court, Justice S. Jagadeesan, as its Chairman, Raghbir Singh, the former secretary, the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution, as Vice-Chairman and T.R. Subramanian, the former Joint Registrar of Trademarks as Technical Member, is located in Guna Complex, 443, Anna Salai, Teynampet, Chennai.

Talking to The Hindu from Chennai, Mr. Justice Jagadeesan said the board, which started functioning from last week, had been posted with around 500 cases arising out of appeals against the orders passed by the Registrar of Trade Marks across the country. Some rectification petitions had also been filed before the board. He said the Benches of the board would also sit in Ahmedabad, Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata in addition to Chennai.

He said the board had written to the High Courts of Madras, Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi and Gujarat requesting them to transfer the cases relating to Trade Marks to the board. While the High Courts of Madras, Bombay and Delhi had transferred the cases, Calcutta and Gujarat High Courts were yet to respond.

The President of the Madras High Court Advocates Association, S. Prabhakaran, told The Hindu that the High Court had transferred about 130 cases to the board. Marking yet another milestone in the ongoing "internationalisation" of India 's intellectual property rights (IPR)-related laws, the amended laws on trademark and geographical indications were notified in September. The changed pieces of legislation would enable compatibility of these parts of India 's IPR legal structure with the TRIPS agreement.

Mr. Justice Jagadeesan said the board would have its first sitting in Mumbai from January 6 to 9 and initially about 40 cases would be taken and the lawyers concerned had been informed about the sitting. Similarly the first sitting in Delhi would be from January 19 to 23.

He said for effective functioning of the board there must be two Benches. Since only one Technical Member had been appointed, now only Bench could sit. However, even this member, Mr. Subramaniam had resigned and the Government had requested him to continue till January 31 next.

He said the Board would deal with matters relating to the Trade Marks Act 1999 and the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration & Protection) Act 1999 essentially aimed at strengthening the IPR protection in the respective areas.

He said for the Trademarks, the amended Act would provide for 10-year term for trademark registrations as against seven years now. It would also introduce concepts of "service marks" and "collective marks" to the Indian system. Besides, a new genre called "well-known marks" would be created.

The proposed changes, he said would be in tune with the rise in economic value of trademarks as corporate assets. Under the new system, contesting the validity of a registered mark would be more difficult. The amended Act on geographical indications of goods would, for the first time in India, provide for registration and better protection of geographical indications in relation to merchandise that derive their exclusivity from their place of origin such as basmati rice, Darjeeling tea, Agra petha, Bikaner bujia or Kancheepuram saree.

Mr. Justice Jagadeesan said new Geographical Indication Registry had been set up in Chennai for receiving applications. The change in the law was on the lines of the British and French laws in this regard that frustrate deceitful commercial use of the celebrated distinctions of products such as Scotch whisky and Champagne. The applicant would have to register not only the product by name, but also comprehensively describe for record the distinguishing features of the product. An expert committee would verify the claims before granting the registration.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National